Desert City 2013 – Update #1

What a fun event!

Great new hotel! Ten minutes from airport! Thrilling skyscraper-high waterslide; “lazy river” with tubes to float along in the sun around the perimeter of the property; giant golf course; fountains and waterfalls, small pools, rows of hibachis and comfy chairs; waterpark; rooms with bathroom in the bedroom at the foot of your bed – a little weird but maybe they have special needs in Phoenix; gigantic ballroom of which we are using only half – next year the sliding room-separator doors will be opened to accomodate the 1300-1500 who will probably show up (this year 1,000+ dancers – two years ago this event won “best under 500″ award at VIP WAG awards – it’s growing fast!).

All day at the pool – or – crazy great workshops (Brent and Kellese, Kielbasa, Rutz, Benji and Tori, Parker, Ben and Jen, Lindo and Jess, Kyle and Sarah, Tony and Larisa, Diego and Jessica, Bob and Anastasia, Chuck, Fred and Leslie, Michael Kiehm – HOLY MACKEREL! (Tomorrow Maxence, Myles and Tessa, Laurie Schwimmer, Jordan and Tat – crazy. Like I said last year, this is where to get your PhD in west coast.)

Jack and Jills all night – ballroom PACKED with enthusiastic friends and fellow competitors. Love the rowdy support out here. Social dancing started immediately and as I write at 5am floor is PACKED PACKED PACKED. Great music!

If you didn’t feel like watching Jack and Jills there’s a second ballroom, open 24/7, up on the second floor, where you can social dance till your feet fall off your legs.

LOT of little kid dancers here. Who dance way better than most adult dancers I know. And I mean little, as in short. 8-, 9-, 10-year old dancers in all levels of Jack and Jills. Whole double row of them sitting along the floor. Wish we had this in DC!

Ronnie’s emcee this weekend – what a treat! Wow does he have energy! So funny! Ronnie doesn’t walk – he bounces around the room.

Thursday night’s Kickoff dance was decent – 50 couples on the floor when we left at 2am, another 60 people milling about. We heard it got more busy and more fun as soon as we left. Trying not to take this personally.

Not everything is perfect about this new venue – at least according to me and I’m 347% accurate. More on this later.

Except Louis wasn’t the deejay for Champions JJ or Strictly. Victor was. Because Victor is great too.

Louis and Victor together? The Dream Team.

The Dream Team is what we have here at Desert City this weekend!

So Ronnie’s on the mic, starts laughing his head off, saying “Are you hearing the songs Louis is playing during rotations? The GAYEST songs ever! Omg!” because Louis’ buffer music had just been a string of “Raining Men,” “I Will Survive,” “Boom Boom Let’s Go Back To My Room,” “So Many Men, So Little Time,” “Dancing Queen,” and “We Are Family” all in a row.

Seriously funny.

Watch the live stream of Desert City all weekend long at thumbsup video! Click here to watch. It’s free!

So tomorrow (Saturday’s) schedule: scaring the lunch out of yourself on that fearsome water-slide, lying with your butt in the water, head laid back in the sun, trailing feet and hands along the ripples as you float down the lazy river for an hour or two, workshops, sleeping in, hanging with friends, practicing, or – if you are on staff – working your butt off from early in the morning till late at night when you fall down dead for two hours with your swollen feet propped up on the headboard.